Who is the ChiefHomeOfficer?

YOU are - or anyone who works from home. Whether you're a full-time 1099er, a corporate teleworking W-2er, a part-time eBayer, or any head-of-household handling family, finances and affairs from a corner desk - and in search of a little balance in the home office, then ChiefHomeOfficer's your destination.
Think of Chief Home Officer.com as LifeHacker meets the home office - no matter what home office you run. Entrepreneurs will discover SOHO 2.0 business insight. Teleworkers will learn leading-edge remote work strategies. will spot tips, tales and links on balance. And those considering making the leap into home officing will unearth equal parts reality and validation. Explore. Learn. Return.

The SOHO Sherpa…

ChiefHomeOfficer is your SOHO Sherpa - a guide to all the things that make the Small Or Home Office (SOHO) work. Since 1993, we've chronicled the work-at-home adventure. Today, the site offers honest and occasionally humorous insights, tips, tech/product reviews, and commentary that cut through the "Make Millions From Home" promise and just lay down the real skinny on a lifestyle people can work and live with.

Want to learn more? If you work from home, want to, or are a corporate marketer hoping to talk to those who do, email jeff [at] chiefhomeofficer dot com.

Meta

This is the first installment of Home Office Pioneers, a look at some of the people who have helped shape the once-and-future home office arena. We’ll ask them a set list of questions, and gather and share their thoughts.

First up: Neal Zimmerman. As principal of Neal Zimmerman and Associates, Neal not only has been at the forefront of the home office scene, but he personally has helped shape the market as a leading architect and designer focused on the home-based workspace.

http://www.nealzimmerman.com

City: West Hartford, Connecticut

Year started working from home: 1994.

Describe your family life? Married, two adult children.

Why did you start working from home? There was a major construction slow-down in the early 1990s and I gave up traditional office space, moved into house initially as a cost saving measure. I stayed.

Key benefits (Beyond ‘balance,’ add some personal stuff unique to your situation)? Key benefits are in time and money savings. What you do with those savings is up to you.

Critical pitfalls YOU faced in your home-working experience? Limitation in being able to seat and supervise employees.

Your Must-Have Power Tool(s) that have made home officing successful for you? Obvious stuff – computer(s), various printers, pda, multifunction printer fax copier machine near main station. Remote phones – two line.

What about your home office design makes it an ideal workspace for you? (i.e., specific furniture, view, location in the home, etc.) Since I am a home office designer, I’ve put a lot of thought into among other things, maximizing my space, while making it comfortable for me, as well as productive. I could write a book about this . . . wait a minute, I did! (At Work At Home)

YOUR Top Three Tips to successful home officing? Every good home office has a combination of three elements – balance, order, and personal spirit. You’ve got to balance your home life and work life, you must maintain a high level of order to maintain efficient, productive output, and last but not least – you should enjoy your home work environment. It should be a reflection of who you are, and the things you are working for in the first place.

Top Three Hurdles / Lessons Learned YOU had to (or continue to) overcome to find success? 1. Maintaining personal discipline. It’s all-too-easy to slide into “offtime” when you are working from home. 2. Establishing resource networks. 3. Keep innovating.

How have you seen home officing evolve since you started? Where do you see it going tomorrow…? In the early 1990s, even the words “home office” meant something else. At that time, they referred to the headquarters of a larger company. Now, the term “head office” has replaced it, because everyone knows that a home office is where you work from home. Also, home office working was peripheral, almost taboo. Now it has come full circle to embody independence, self-reliance, and has become “cool”. Where is it going? I see it as part of a larger change in the way we view and use our domiciles. I see it as one part of a larger movement toward personal, privatized, special-purpose space. People are beginning to view their homes as more than places to sleep and raise children. They are beginning to view their homes as a multi-functional oasis for all kinds of special purpose activities – and they are developing special purpose spaces to accommodate those activities.